286 ORCHIDS. 
tails are very thin, and rin. long; colour orange-yellow 
and deep crimson. This is a graceful plant, and when 
grown into a good tuft, it produces a great number of 
flowers, which remain fresh a month or more. It requires 
the same treatment as M. Harryana. 
M. Chestertonii—One of the most distinct kinds of the 
Chimera group, differing very widely in the form and size 
of its flowers from M. Chimera. The leaves are tufted, 
5in. long, rin. wide, broadest above the middle, pointed, 
channelled, scarcely stalked, pale dull green. The scapes 
are pendulous, 4in. long, with numerous sheaths, one- 
flowered. Flower 2}in. across; sepals spreading, ovate, 
tin. long, yellowish green, with spots and streaks of purple, 
each having a tail-like appendage, 1in. long, curved at the 
point; petals very small, and club-shaped, yellow, with 
black tips; lip kidney-shaped, concave, #in. across, with 
red veins on a pale red ground. This species blossoms 
in September, and requires the same treatment as advised 
for M. Chimera. Introduced from New Grenada in 1883. 
Botanical Magazine, t. 6977. 
M. Chimera.—One of the most wonderful of all Orchids. 
Some would call its flowers ugly: none would deny the 
extraordinary character of their shapes and colours. ‘“ No 
name more applicable could be found for it than that of 
the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, which had the body 
of a goat, the head of a lion, and the tail of a dragon, 
and which vomited forth flames of fire” (Reichenbach). 
There are several other species very similar to it, and 
one or two of them are sometimes known as M. Chimera. 
The true plant has leaves rft. long, 14in. broad, slightly 
channelled, dull green, the stalks springing from sheaths 
1in. long. The flower-scape is curved, 6in. to gin. long, 
sheathed at the nodes, one-flowered. Each flower is com- 
